It was a neat surprise again last year when a player fresh out of college won the Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational for the second time in the tournament's five years.

Bob Baptist, The Columbus Dispatch

It was a neat surprise again last year when a player fresh out of college won the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational for the second time in the tournament’s five years.

Now it’s getting to the point where the surprise will be if a collegian doesn’t win it again next year, or any year.

The event whose signature is the 12 college All-Americans invited each year, saw one of those take the title again yesterday, and in a playoff against another collegian, no less.

Recent Virginia graduate Ben Kohles rallied from a two-stroke deficit with three birdies on his last seven holes to force a playoff with Luke Guthrie, who finished his career at Illinois just eight weeks ago.

Kohles then birdied the first hole of the playoff, from 22 feet, to become the first golfer to win a Web.com Tour event in his first professional start. He sunk his putt after Guthrie missed his birdie try from 25 feet.

“Absolutely a dream come true,” said Kohles, who a week earlier was playing in the Porter Cup amateur tournament in Niagara Falls, N.Y. “What more can you ask for in your first pro event?”

Kohles, the third-round leader, shot a 1-under-par 70 for a 12-under 272 total. Guthrie had a bogey-free, 5-under 66 that included a miraculous par at No.16 after a towering escape shot from the weeds and trees left of the fairway.

“I played really solid,” said Guthrie, who came into the tournament having made more than $280,000 on the PGA Tour already this season by finishing in the top 20 in only three events.

Casey Wittenberg and Cliff Kresge, who shot 68 and 69, respectively, missed the playoff by a stroke.

Wittenberg did assume the No.1 position on the Web.com money list, but that was not his target. A third victory this season would have given him an immediate “battlefield promotion” to the PGA Tour, and he had it in his sights with a one-stroke lead and two holes to play.

But his tee shot to the par-3 17th hole came up short and rolled back off the green, and he could not get up and down to save par.

On the 18th, Wittenberg’s approach landed well left of the pin and left him with little chance of holing the birdie putt. He parred for 11-under, then watched Guthrie roll in a 20-foot birdie to better him by one.

“That’s how golf goes,” Wittenberg said. “You couldn’t make mistakes coming down the end, and I gave him a little bit of hope on 17 when I made a bogey.”

Kohles’ hopes were flagging when he bogeyed the 10th hole and had to save par at the 11th. He trailed by two strokes.

He reclaimed a stroke with a two-putt birdie at the par-5 12th, and when he reached the 15th green at 10-under, he saw a leader board showing Wittenberg at 12-under and Guthrie at 11-under.

“I knew I had to make something happen,” Kohles said.

He put his approach shot to No.16 inside 10 feet and made the putt for birdie. Then he produced the shot of the tournament at 18, a wedge from 139 yards that stopped a foot from the pin. He tapped that in to force the playoff, which he ended without drama.

Kohles earned the status to play the rest of the year on the Web.com Tour. The $144,000 first prize put him in position to finish among the top 25 on the money list and earn a spot on the PGA Tour next season.

“It hasn't really sunk in yet,” he said. “You know, coming right out of college, I didn't have any money to my name. But I guess I have some money now.”